Sonic Fusion not working as advertised, with no solution from support

[cmeisel]

https://forums.att.com/t5/AT-T-Fiber-Eq ... 5153#M7940

[guest]

willtull, when you say use your own router only for wifi, how are you going about that exactly? If your router doesn't have an explicit access point mode, most any router can be used that way by moving its LAN IP address to not conflict with anything in the main router, and cable LAN to LAN with nothing connected to the WAN port in your second router, but it's also critical that you turn off DHCP on the LAN of the 2nd router so that client devices don't get assigned an IP address by it, you just want it to bridge the wireless LAN to ethernet and let clients get DHCP addresses only from the main router. If you have two DHCP servers on the LAN you'll have intermittent connectivity for each client device depending on which DHCP server wins the lottery and assigns the client an IP at a given time. If you've got that all setup right, then the 2nd router only is bridging wifi to ethernet and it should be just as reliably online as plugging the computer directly into the main router's ethernet port with a cable (assuming no separate wifi issues with the wifi link to your second router acting as an access point).

[willtull]

Cmeisel, thanks for the link. I tried that manual port forwarding solution when I found the associated AT&T thread but it did not work reliably. There were intermittent interruptions in service, as if the modem was still fighting for DHCP. I believe others in that 40+ page thread had the same experience.

Similarly, I tried setting my router to provide wifi-only (DHCP off) with the Pace gateway providing DHCP. Although the speed looked good, there were again intermittent disconnects and stuttering in the connection.

I suspect there's an issue with the Pace router's DHCP but I'm reaching the limit of my knowledge (and questioning whether a customer should really have to go to such lengths.) Unfortunately when AT&T runs a remote test the "speed looks good", so they refuse to do anything.

I plan to go back to DMZ+ once more and see if I can get Sonic to get AT&T to run their tests again. They'll see the 50 Mbps speed and maybe be convinced to look into it?

Thanks again to those offering suggestions.

[gtwrek]

I can say without reservation that the post Cmeisel referenced in the ATT forums, (the one marked as a "solution") doesn't work, and this is backed up by others in that (long) thread. That solution involves a Double NAT, which interferes with many applications.

The solution I used - reverting the firmware does work. Here's my (common) setup:
ATT Fiber termination -> PACE Router ->(via DMZ Plus)->My Router->My network (192.168.1,x)->(My Wireless AP, among other things)

The PACE Router is setup in DMZ Plus mode - with the only connection to my Router. I left the Pace DHCP running, but it's on a different subnet (10.0.0.x) and pretty much unused. The PACE is also running ATT WiFi, (Can't turn it off) but it's unused in my household. (The ATT WiFi being on requires the DHCP server running on the PACE).

My router on WAN side is receiving the public WAN IP via the PACE. My router is running its own DHCP server on my 192.168.1.x LAN. My router is also running a firewall, as well as forwarding select WAN ports to my internal LAN.

This all works fine with the reverted firmware discussed in the thread. This will not work with the ATT post marked as "solution".
This will work,unreliably, with poor bandwidth with the latest ATT firmware.

This all worked for over a decade with Sonic DSL solutions (in Bridged mode).

Regards,
Mark

[willtull]

Thanks, Mark. That's very useful info and I'm glad to hear you got it working. I agree Sonic is in a tough situation while they roll out their own fiber, but this should be such a simple fix considering we know exactly what's wrong.

I may try rolling back the firrmware as you suggest, but I'd much prefer to get a sanctioned solution from my service provider. Fortunately, I haven't canceled my Wave service yet so I have that as a fallback.

[rl0wen68]

I am pretty sure that I am also experiencing this problem with my Pace 5268AC Gateway. Although I am not connected to Gigabit (Sonic Fusion), I did recently upgrade my service from 50 MB to 75MB speed. Of course, this uses the AT&T lines and consists two bonded pairs coming into my Gateway from the street.

I also run DMZ mode to light up my Gigabit wired LAN and two WiFi nodes. My WiFi Router is setup to handle all my internal home wired network using DHCP, as well as being one of two WiFi access points. Also have been doing this for over ten years starting with AT&T Uverse service before switching to Sonic about three years ago. Although all the network details are relatively obscure to me, I stumbled through a number of forums in the past to figure out how to run my home network behind the supplied Gateway.

Now that I am connected to 75MB service, I only get close to that speed when doing the test directly from the Pace 5268AC. When performing a test from behind my WiFi Router, connected via my wired Gigabit LAN, I only get speeds less than 50MB.

When I called Sonic support to ask about settings or parameters on the Gateway that might be checked, they informed me that they do not support anything other than the standard configuration. Basically, Sonic does not support me setting up a network, wired or wireless, behind the Gateway. I think this is unreasonable. I know that few people have a more complex network behind their Gateway, but why make it so difficult to make it work?

My wish is the Gateway could be set up just like a DSL modem in bridged mode, so that all my network and related service could be handled by my own, easy to use, and supported WiFi and Router hardware. It can't be that difficult to design a basic modem to connect to the WAN via the fiber, or other wired connections.

[rl0wen68]

Given the information regarding the problem with DMZ+ mode on my AT&T Gateway, I decided to reconfigure my home network. Without going into too much detail, I reset the Gateway to remove DMZ + (standard configuration) and put my two WiFi base stations into bridge mode in a WiFi roaming configuration, moving the router responsibilities back onto the Gateway. This involved a variety of tasks through the admin pages of the devices and associated resets to bring up the network under the new configuration, as well as some minor changes to my physical cable connections.

Testing the internet speed from my computer (connected via a switch and associated Cat6 cables) now gives download speeds of 78 Mbps and 65 Mbps with two different test services. Note that these are both above the 50 Mbps limit of the Gateway when using the prior setup with my primary WiFi router DMZ + enabled. My service speed is advertised as 75 Mbps.

So this solution solves the speed limiting problem with using DMZ+ mode and allows me to utilize a much better WiFi roaming network than could be achieved with the WiFi in the Gateway.

[willtull]

Just a quick follow-up from OP - Sonic and AT&T were not willing or able to resolve this issue. I finally just bought my own Arris BGW210 which immediately fixed the issues.

I've heard the PACE firmware may have been patched and that AT&T is using the BGW210 with other customers now. If you're still having issues with DMZ/passthrough, or just general tomfoolery with the PACE modem, I would press them to give you a different model.